39/52 - Brownies and Cream

Brownies and Cream

I was running out of time for this weeks entry for the project and didn't have any idea as to what I was going to shoot. Coming up with a new idea every week is probably the hardest part of this exercise. I opted to photograph one of the Brownies which my wife had baked earlier in the day. I'm glad I photographed them when I did because they didn't last much longer.

Lighting setup shots inside. 

Lighting Setup - Brownies and Cream

The main light for this photograph was form a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/8th through a shoot-through umbrella. The umbrella was placed slightly behind the Brownie.

The angle of the main light meant the front of the Brownie was in shadow. To only light this area I used a Canon 430 EX II fired through a grid spot at 1/16th. The grid spot allows you to control the light from a strobe and only light a very small area. The highlighted area in the photograph below was lit by a grid spot.

A Brownie only lit by a grid spot

Melbourne

Flinders Street station - Melbourne, Australia

It has taken me five years to make it down to Melbourne since relocating to Sydney in early 2005. We spent last weekend in and around the Melbourne CBD catching up with a few friends and family.  I had Friday and Monday off as well and spent the extra days wondering around the city with the camera. The image above is of Flinders Street station, one of the bigger stations in the CBD.  More images and info after the jump.

St Pauls Cathedral - Melbourne, Australia 

St Pauls Cathedral, shown in the image above, is on the opposite side of the road from Flinders Street station. This was the first time I had actually been inside the cathedral itself and unfortunately I didn't have the tripod with me. There wasn't a lot of light inside and I had to shoot at 1/10th of a second at f4. Fortunately I found a railing right in the middle of the isle which I was able to use for support. 

Horse rides in the city - Melbourne, Australia

Horse carriages are a common sight along Swanston street in the heart of Melbourne. Usually you'll see around five or six carriages taking tourists for a ride (literally and metaphorically) from the city to the Shrine of Remembrance and back, along St Kilda Road. 

Art and Craft Markets - Melbourne, Australia

We also spent some time at the art and craft markets, which are on every sunday. The stalls were quite interesting and some of them had some really good black and white images for sale. The stall selling frames made out of reclaimed wood (fence posts etc) is also worth a visit. I could have easily spent a couple of hours more browsing through the stalls.

Sculpture of a Hammer thrower at Queen Victoria Gardens - Melbourne Australia

John Robinson's bronze sculpture of a hammer thrower was unveiled in 1974 by Lord Mayor Cr Whalley can be found in Queen Victoria gardens. The title of the sculpture is "The Pathfinder" and it is part of Melbourne's collection of sculptures of sporting heroes. Stealing the hammer from the statue has become a common prank amongst Melbournians and as a result, the hammer is removed from the sculpture every evening and replaced the following morning.  The statue had been removed when I captured the image above.

The Sherlock Holmes - Melbourne, Australia

The lanes and alleys of Melbourne are full of small pubs and bars which are packed on Friday and Saturday nights. The wooden sign board of the Sherlock Holmes, on Collins Street, caught my eye when I was walking past heading towards docklands. I think the flowering pot plants also added to the image.

All the images on this post were captured with a Canon 7D and a Canon 24-105mm lens.  More images from melbourne will be covered in future posts.

Havelock Place Bungalow - Food Photography

Bread & Butter

This post is a bit different from the usual. I took a few shots of the Food at the Havelock Place Bungalow in December and in this post I will describe how each of the five shots were taken and lit. All the shots were taken with a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens mounted on a 7D More info after the jump.

The shot above was taken with an aperture of 3.5 at 1/50th of a second. I wanted to give the shot some depth and therefore didn't use the flash on camera. Instead, I used a canon 430EX fired at around 1/32 from camera left. This gave the image the desired depth as it created shadows. It also created a few highlights on the glasses which also added to the image.

Coconut and Crab Risotto

An aperture of 3.2 and a shutter speed of 1/125th were used to capture this image. This one was a bit trickier to light due to the shape of the coconut and the fact that I had only one flash. The flash was fired from camera right at about 1/32. I feel there are too many dark areas in this image. In hindsight I should have either left the shutter opened for a bit longer for the ambient light to brighten up the image or used a white serviette from the left of the camera to reflect the flash and lighten up the left hand side of the image.

Seafood Laksa

I positioned the flash behind the subject for this image as I wanted to go for a slightly different look. Firing the flash from behind the bowl helped define the rim of the bowl. It also defined the surface of the Laksa by creating shadows. The flash almost caused the highlights of this image to be blown but in my opinion this makes the viewer focus on the Laksa itself rather than get distracted by the other plates which are visible.

Jaggery Ice Cream

The glass which the Ice Cream was served in was chilled and drops of water had formed on the outside. I wanted to try and use the flash to accentuate these drops. In order to do this I shot the flash at around 1/16th through a white cloth serviette to even out the light. The flash was shot from Camera right and slightly behind the subject.  The aperture used was around f 9.0 and the shutter speed was 1/15. I used this combination to reduce the effect of the flash and bring up the background with the ambient.

Lemon Tart and Vanilla Ice Cream

An aperture of f 6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second were used to capture this image. The flash was shot at 1/64 from camera left. I had to bring the aperture down to 6.3 in order to control the highlights on the Ice Cream. I wanted to use the flash to define the edges of the Lemon Tart and the Ice Cream. To do this I needed hard light.